Dynamically balancing transporters refer to personal vehicles having a motion control system that actively maintains the stability of the transporter while the transporter is operating. The motion control system maintains the stability of the transporter by continuously sensing the orientation of the transporter, determining any corrective action to maintain stability, and commanding the wheel motors to make the corrective action. One such transporter is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,230. Other dynamically balancing transporters are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,701,965 and 5,971,091. Each of these patents is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
While control systems for balancing transporters can respond to certain extraneous torques, the torque presented by a trailer coupled to a balancing transporter in an arbitrary manner would vary nonlinearly with the orientation of the transporter and would present an obstacle to stable control of the transporter.